Check Suspension drop down message appears intermittently - any ideas/help?

[Mikey]

Thanks for that description It is an RT so space is tight but I was able to do exactly what you described yesterday with a fitting from the hardware store. I still have a small leak somewhere though as I slowly lose pressure after several hours. Could be a hole in the bag or the fitting at the bag which I can’t access. Thought about trying slime to see if it would seal the bag if it is indeed a hole in the bag.

If you jack up the back you can reach up in there, I believe to soap it down. Did you soap up the rest of the line and fittings?

Doesn’t slime require centrifugal force like in a tire to work by getting forced into the puncture hole?

There have been a few on here that say they have had good luck with it on the bag, I would make sure it's leaking there before I spent the time doing it that stuff makes a heck of a mess in my book, but it works if you can get it to where the leak is!

 

[Snowbelt Spyder]

Thanks for that description It is an RT so space is tight but I was able to do exactly what you described yesterday with a fitting from the hardware store. I still have a small leak somewhere though as I slowly lose pressure after several hours. Could be a hole in the bag or the fitting at the bag which I can’t access. Thought about trying slime to see if it would seal the bag if it is indeed a hole in the bag.

Mikey has given you excellent help. If I may add a couple of things….

Even though the air bag has a lot of pressure, it has a very small volume. Thus each time that you check air pressure, you’ll lose about 2 pounds. Plus, the pressure is sensitive to temperature changes. To get an accurate indication if you actually have a leak, allow it to sit at least overnight. If the pressure is still within a pound or two, then you probably don’t have a leak after all. And follow his advice and verify with the soapy water test on all the connections. As he pointed out, those push to connect fittings may feel completely seated, even when they are not.

History has shown that the majority of air bag leaks occur at the bottom of the bag, where the little stones and gravel accumulate. It wears a hole in the bag. Slime has been known to work in that case. You don’t need centrifugal force. All you need is gravity. Again, verify with soapy water testing. Ride safe. Good luck.

 

[Peter Aawen]

Thanks for that description It is an RT so space is tight but I was able to do exactly what you described yesterday with a fitting from the hardware store. I still have a small leak somewhere though as I slowly lose pressure after several hours. Could be a hole in the bag or the fitting at the bag which I can’t access. Thought about trying slime to see if it would seal the bag if it is indeed a hole in the bag.

Doesn’t slime require centrifugal force like in a tire to work by getting forced into the puncture hole?

Centrifugal force helps, especially on a tire where the leak/hole isn't all that likely to be only found down near the bottom of the tire, but if there's a leak with air actually flowing out of it with any real pressure, then it's not strictly essential just to stop a small leak.

With a tire, the centrifugal force is usually necessary in order to evenly distribute the recommended quantity of slime evenly around the inside of the tire so that it can form a protective skin for any future leaks, but you can usually seal an existing leak by either spinning the wheel to get the leak sitting down at/near about 150mm/6" from the lowest point; or if you don't know where the leak is, taking the whole wheel off the vehicle and lying it flat on the ground for a few minutes (it can help if you try to lay it down with the leak at the lowest point) before flipping it and lying it flat on the other side for another few more minutes, making sure there's still enough air pressure to have an air stream actually blowing out of the leak. If you've added enough of slime and your air pressure is enough to keep that air stream blowing, then the slime will tend to run (or be sucked/blown) into the leak and stop it, but it won't spread evenly around the entire insides of the tire until you spin it up and that centrifugal force thing kicks in!

But when it comes to these air bags, once you've got a direct line into the bag, rather than going thru the compressor, any valves, loops of air lines etc, then as long as the hole/leak isn't thru a gaping wound/big tear, you won't need too much slime (I've never needed to use much more than about 30 mls) or excessively high air pressure, but if you add a little slime to your air bag and then inflate it to slightly above the normal pressure in said bag (maybe 10 psi more?!) then the air flow out of the leak/s will usually blow the slime to, fill, & plug the leak/s, even if the leak is up high on the bag (altho they're often down at the bottom, where fine gravel/grit can get between the bottom of the bag and whatever it's sitting on/in, even if it's one of the guard/cups designed to stop bigger stones getting in between the bag base and the swing arm!) It can help if you actually ride the Spyder once the slime has been added, but if you can't do that for a while, then just add maybe another 5-10 psi of air pressure. The air bag is small enough that if there's air flowing out the leak, the slime will fairly readily be forced to and fill any leak it might have, even if it's up near/around where the air line comes in. And if at first it doesn't succeed, use the soapy water method to make sure it's actually a leak and not a tear or rip, then you can always try again.

Do you really need to ask me how I know this slime thing can really work on Spyder air bags (& tires)?!